The invention relates to a shoe, especially a sport shoe, with a shoe sole, which is composed of an outsole, a midsole of elastically springy material, an insole, and a honeycomb body with cell walls that are oriented at least approximately perpendicular to the shoe outsole.
A sole for such a shoe, especially a sport shoe, is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,485,568 to Landi et al. The honeycomb body consists of rectangular honeycomb cells, whose longitudinal and crosswise sides (cell walls) run perpendicular to the outsole surface. As a result, the sole has good lateral stability. The honeycomb body can be used as an insole, midsole or outsole. The upper surface of the honeycomb body is covered with a gas-permeable, especially perforated covering element. As a result, a gas exchange in the shoe interior, but not from cell to cell, is possible. Therefore, with this type of sole, it is disadvantageous that, even though air circulation in the sense of an aeration of the interior of the shoe is achieved, additional damping effect, especially in the edge areas of the honeycomb body, is not achieved.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 532,429 (Rogers) and 1,559,532 (Smith) show shoe soles with honeycomb cushioning bodies formed, respectively, as integral formations in ball and forefoot regions of an insole sole or as inserts of an outsole, respectively, while Byrne, U.K. Patent Specification No. 138,794, shows air cushion cells formed integrally within these regions of an outsole. However, no means for gas exchange between cells exists, so that compression of highly stressed cells does not bring about an increase in damping force in less highly stressed cells.
A pneumatic insole is known from U.S. Pat. No. 1,304,915 to Spinney having a series of elongated chambers which run in a lengthwise direction of the sole in its forefoot region and crosswise in the remaining portion of the sole, or where all of the chambers run in a crosswise direction of the sole. A restricted movement of air from chamber-to-chamber is obtained via the provision of a small opening through the center of the chamber walls. However, because of the configuration, size and number of the chambers together with the location of the openings, the exchange of air between adjacent chambers cannot readily adapt to variations in loading or bring about an increased lateral stabilization of the foot upon engagement of the sole with the ground. Additionally, such a chambered sole does not possess the stability of a honeycomb body.